Will Texans be allowed into the United States without visas? Will Congress be calling for stricter border controls? Will gates have to be put at the border of the Interstates and other highways? How long would the wait be to get from Texas into the United States on I-35 or I-10. Would it be anything like the crossings from Canada at Sault St. Marie and the Ambassador Bridge?
Maybe many large corporations will headquarter in Texas for lower taxes and fewer regulations. But will they have the schools and highways that have been subsidized by the United States government? Will many Americans outside of Texas want to move to a “foreign” country?
Will Texas survive without the Federal government largesse for military bases, NASA, and border control?
These questions were raised in my mind by “From Kurdistan To Texax, Scots Spur Separatists”, Katrin Bennhold, New York Times, 2014-09-10.
Showing posts with label customs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label customs. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Monday, February 04, 2013
My nationality is American
A favorite conversational item of many Americans is "What nationality are you?" This happens often because we are a nation of immigrants from elsewhere or the descendants of immigrants. But how is it that the nationality of someone from Canada is Canadian and from Australia is Australian?
One of my favorite comebacks is "What nationality is the King of Sweden?" Following the male line back, he's French; he's descended from Marechal Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's marshals.
As for me, my paternal grandmother is the only immigrant among my grandparents; she was born in Silesia, at that time part of Germany. The other three were all born in the United States. As I hardly knew my grandmother, I didn't have much German influence.
Of my great-grandparents, four were born in Germany, three were born in England, and one supposedly was born in Brooklyn. More about him later. I never knew my German great-grandparents, and we never had any German traditions in our house. I only knew my mother's paternal grandmother, and the only thing English I experienced from her was tea, with Carnation milk!
As for the supposedly Brooklyn-born great-grandfather, I've found some indications that he probably was born in Liverpool, England. Most of the records for him give his name as John J.R. Magree, but Brooklyn has no birth certificate for him. I did find two Liverpool records for the child John James Robert Magree. His mother may have been Irish or English, but his father was John Cornelius Magree, probably the John C. Magree who was the master of the Ship Ivanhoe bringing immigrants from Liverpool to New York in Jan 1851. There was no John J.R. Magree in the passenger list. Interestingly, on his marriage record, John C.'s father was Vinsent Magree [sic], Vincent Magree was in Baltimore in the 1830 Census.
Other than possibly John C.s marriage in Liverpool, I have found no ancestor that I can link to Ireland.
My only Irish link to the name Magree is from Magree's I contacted in Australia. They can trace their Magree ancestors to Kilkenny, Ireland, and even to some specific pieces of land.
Interestingly, on one St. Patrick's Day, my mother said "We are Orange Irish". Other than her in-laws, she knew nothing of my father's grandparents.
Having lived in Italy for two years and in Sweden for four years, I like to kid that I am more Italian than many Americans that call themselves Italian and likewise for "Swedes".
One of my favorite comebacks is "What nationality is the King of Sweden?" Following the male line back, he's French; he's descended from Marechal Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's marshals.
As for me, my paternal grandmother is the only immigrant among my grandparents; she was born in Silesia, at that time part of Germany. The other three were all born in the United States. As I hardly knew my grandmother, I didn't have much German influence.
Of my great-grandparents, four were born in Germany, three were born in England, and one supposedly was born in Brooklyn. More about him later. I never knew my German great-grandparents, and we never had any German traditions in our house. I only knew my mother's paternal grandmother, and the only thing English I experienced from her was tea, with Carnation milk!
As for the supposedly Brooklyn-born great-grandfather, I've found some indications that he probably was born in Liverpool, England. Most of the records for him give his name as John J.R. Magree, but Brooklyn has no birth certificate for him. I did find two Liverpool records for the child John James Robert Magree. His mother may have been Irish or English, but his father was John Cornelius Magree, probably the John C. Magree who was the master of the Ship Ivanhoe bringing immigrants from Liverpool to New York in Jan 1851. There was no John J.R. Magree in the passenger list. Interestingly, on his marriage record, John C.'s father was Vinsent Magree [sic], Vincent Magree was in Baltimore in the 1830 Census.
Other than possibly John C.s marriage in Liverpool, I have found no ancestor that I can link to Ireland.
My only Irish link to the name Magree is from Magree's I contacted in Australia. They can trace their Magree ancestors to Kilkenny, Ireland, and even to some specific pieces of land.
Interestingly, on one St. Patrick's Day, my mother said "We are Orange Irish". Other than her in-laws, she knew nothing of my father's grandparents.
Having lived in Italy for two years and in Sweden for four years, I like to kid that I am more Italian than many Americans that call themselves Italian and likewise for "Swedes".
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
What nationality are you? An irrelevant question!
Asking "What nationality are you" seems to be an American social game. But is it really a relevant question? When people ask me this, I answer, "I'm American." How can I be anything else?
Three of my grandparents were born in the U.S. and one in a part of Germany now in Poland. I hardly knew my German-born grandmother when I was growing up. I certainly was not German when I went to Germany.
Four of my great-grandparents were born in Germany. See above. I never met any of them. Three of my great-grandparents were born in England. I only knew one of my great-grandmothers and about the only English custom observed when we visited her was drinking tea, with Carnation milk! I certainly was not English when I went to England.
One of my great-grandfathers, the one with the "Irish" name, was born in Williamsburgh, New York, now a neighborhood of Brooklyn. I never knew him, and I only drove through Brooklyn to get to JFK. I doubt anybody anywhere would consider me a Brooklynite.
I've known several people who've called themselves Swedish or Italian, but I bet I've spent more time in those countries and know more of both languages than many of these people's parents. Not all by any means, but enough to wonder why these people call themselves Swedish or Italian rather than Americans.
Ironically, Americans often consider Canadian, Australian, and New Zealander as nationalities. But these countries are populated with people from all over the world, just like the United States.
Even more ironically, many of the "nationalities" represent nation-states that are themselves made of people with ancestors outside the borders of the nation states. Consider the often beleaguered nation Poland. Most of the people there have German, Swedish, Finnish, Russian, Latvian, and other ancestors. The French skier, Jean-Claude Killey's grandfather was a Kelly. And what nationality is the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy? According to American custom he is Hungarian-Greek-Jewish-Spanish-… Are there any French "birthers" demanding to see Sarkozy's birth certificate?
Three of my grandparents were born in the U.S. and one in a part of Germany now in Poland. I hardly knew my German-born grandmother when I was growing up. I certainly was not German when I went to Germany.
Four of my great-grandparents were born in Germany. See above. I never met any of them. Three of my great-grandparents were born in England. I only knew one of my great-grandmothers and about the only English custom observed when we visited her was drinking tea, with Carnation milk! I certainly was not English when I went to England.
One of my great-grandfathers, the one with the "Irish" name, was born in Williamsburgh, New York, now a neighborhood of Brooklyn. I never knew him, and I only drove through Brooklyn to get to JFK. I doubt anybody anywhere would consider me a Brooklynite.
I've known several people who've called themselves Swedish or Italian, but I bet I've spent more time in those countries and know more of both languages than many of these people's parents. Not all by any means, but enough to wonder why these people call themselves Swedish or Italian rather than Americans.
Ironically, Americans often consider Canadian, Australian, and New Zealander as nationalities. But these countries are populated with people from all over the world, just like the United States.
Even more ironically, many of the "nationalities" represent nation-states that are themselves made of people with ancestors outside the borders of the nation states. Consider the often beleaguered nation Poland. Most of the people there have German, Swedish, Finnish, Russian, Latvian, and other ancestors. The French skier, Jean-Claude Killey's grandfather was a Kelly. And what nationality is the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy? According to American custom he is Hungarian-Greek-Jewish-Spanish-… Are there any French "birthers" demanding to see Sarkozy's birth certificate?
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Let's solve illegal immigration for once and for all!!
Illegal immigration has been a problem in America (and many other countries) for centuries. In what is now called the United States let's solve it by sending the children of illegal immigrants and the children's children, yea unto to the sixteenth generation, back where they came from. Let's start with sending all the Mayflower descendants back to England!
Did they really get permission from all the governments of the people already living here to stay put and to take resources from the then current occupants? Did they learn the customs and the languages of the people already living here? No, they insisted on following their Old World customs and speaking their Old World language. Even that language was a mishmash of the language of illegal immigrants from another part of the Old World.
Then let's send back all the children of the Southern planters and the children of their children. They grabbed great swaths of land from those already reaping the bounty of the land, they cleared the land of those pesky forests that produced an abundance of food, and they pushed those who already lived on the land farther and farther from the coasts.
And on and on it went, decade after decade, farther and farther west. Now the true illegal immigrants want to push out the descendants of the Anasazi, the Aztecs, the Toltecs, and the Mayans from land they had occupied for millennia until the real illegal immigrants arrived.
And we should send the Ojibwe out of the territory they took from the Dakota. And we should send the Lenni Lenape out of the territory they took from others as they pushed east to the Great Salt Sea (see James Fenimore Cooper).
If we all stayed put in the land of our fathers and their fathers, just think of how we could reduce the problem of illegal immigration!! Of course, if we all did that, we would still be peasants working from dawn to dusk, suffering cold and heat according to the season, and wondering when a drought or the foreign overlords would wipe us out.
We really should follow the advice of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?" That means we have to absorb people moving in and we have to be sensitive when we move into others' territory. And next year we will have world peace.
Did they really get permission from all the governments of the people already living here to stay put and to take resources from the then current occupants? Did they learn the customs and the languages of the people already living here? No, they insisted on following their Old World customs and speaking their Old World language. Even that language was a mishmash of the language of illegal immigrants from another part of the Old World.
Then let's send back all the children of the Southern planters and the children of their children. They grabbed great swaths of land from those already reaping the bounty of the land, they cleared the land of those pesky forests that produced an abundance of food, and they pushed those who already lived on the land farther and farther from the coasts.
And on and on it went, decade after decade, farther and farther west. Now the true illegal immigrants want to push out the descendants of the Anasazi, the Aztecs, the Toltecs, and the Mayans from land they had occupied for millennia until the real illegal immigrants arrived.
And we should send the Ojibwe out of the territory they took from the Dakota. And we should send the Lenni Lenape out of the territory they took from others as they pushed east to the Great Salt Sea (see James Fenimore Cooper).
If we all stayed put in the land of our fathers and their fathers, just think of how we could reduce the problem of illegal immigration!! Of course, if we all did that, we would still be peasants working from dawn to dusk, suffering cold and heat according to the season, and wondering when a drought or the foreign overlords would wipe us out.
We really should follow the advice of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?" That means we have to absorb people moving in and we have to be sensitive when we move into others' territory. And next year we will have world peace.
Friday, May 30, 2008
How portable should customs be?
Some Muslim women have sued their employer because they were required to wear a certain uniform. They said the uniform violated their religious freedom. Would a Muslim country allow a western women to wear whatever she chose?
It has long bothered me that Americans are supposed to adopt certain customs in other countries, but non-Americans should be allowed their own customs in the U.S. We should eat in a certain way in Japan; but Japanese should feel free to slurp their noodles and soup in the U.S.
I remember learning in school that U.N. envoy Ralph Bunche graciously accepted the sheep's eye in a stew while he was in North Africa. But will a Muslim accept a ham dinner in the U.S.? If not, I should be freely able to decline a sheep's eye.
Closer to home, some people wear their shoes in their houses, and some don't. Many of the latter request that their guests take off their shoes. Some of these latter even insist on taking off their shoes when their hosts are wearing shoes, often cluttering up a hallway with their shoes.
Che paese vai, che usanze trovi! Whatever country you go to, adopt the customs that you find. Or, when in Rome do as the Romans do.
But if the Romans are throwing the Christians to the lions, should you do likewise?
Addendum 2009-07-26
As I was planning a similar entry today, I double-checked the Italian phrase above. I made two mistakes, one in word order, the second in making a word plural. The correct phrase is "Paese che vai, usanza che trovi."
It has long bothered me that Americans are supposed to adopt certain customs in other countries, but non-Americans should be allowed their own customs in the U.S. We should eat in a certain way in Japan; but Japanese should feel free to slurp their noodles and soup in the U.S.
I remember learning in school that U.N. envoy Ralph Bunche graciously accepted the sheep's eye in a stew while he was in North Africa. But will a Muslim accept a ham dinner in the U.S.? If not, I should be freely able to decline a sheep's eye.
Closer to home, some people wear their shoes in their houses, and some don't. Many of the latter request that their guests take off their shoes. Some of these latter even insist on taking off their shoes when their hosts are wearing shoes, often cluttering up a hallway with their shoes.
Che paese vai, che usanze trovi! Whatever country you go to, adopt the customs that you find. Or, when in Rome do as the Romans do.
But if the Romans are throwing the Christians to the lions, should you do likewise?
Addendum 2009-07-26
As I was planning a similar entry today, I double-checked the Italian phrase above. I made two mistakes, one in word order, the second in making a word plural. The correct phrase is "Paese che vai, usanza che trovi."
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